From James Pine

Zucchini Bread

Bowl 1 {medium bowl}:
3 cups flour
1 and one-half cups sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 and one-half teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Mix well.

Bowl 2 {big bowl}:
2 eggs and 2 egg whites
two-thirds cup canola oil
3 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel or 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Mix together eggs and oil.  Fold in the zucchini and lemon.  Stir gently
until the zukes are well coated with liquid.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Grease TWO loaf pans.  Stir bowl 1 ingredients
into bowl 2 ingredients just until mixture is moist.  Divide mixture
between two pans.  Bake 45-60 minutes until pick inserted in center
comes out clean.  Run spatula around the edges of the bread.  Remove
bread from pans within 10 minutes.  Place breads on cooling rack.

James comment: "ok, that's clipped in all its gory detail. I didn't want to send you the
contents of the shorthand index card, so I found the original. enjoy."

Here are the pearls of wisdom I received at my bachelorette party from my female friends. It's been a long time since the party. Lisa hosted it. It was a great party.

• The way to a man's heart is through is stomach
• Life is funny. Laugh together often.
• Make sure you each have "alone time." Very important!
• Be selective about the sentimental items from his past that you allow him to keep.
• Hiring a cleaning person will help you maintain a happy, healthy marriage.
• His favorite move is "plaid schoolbus." Trust me.
• Smooch often!
• Don't argue over dirty dishes.
• Hire a cleaning lady!
• Talk about it! (Don't mind-read - ask!)
• Keep track of your underwear!
• Don't surface too quickly.
• Sing like no one is listening.
  Love like you'll never be hurt.
  Dance like no one is watching.
  Live like heaven on Earth.
• Be comfortable enough to fart in his presense. But don't abuse the privilege.
• Always remember your love will help you overcome any obstacle between you and Kris.
• I'll give you some advice for your man,
  Let him scrub every dish, cup and pan.
  When it comes to your cooch,
  Don't be a mooch,
  Let him linger as long as he can.
• Argue naked.
• Hold hands every day.
• Happiness is a pedicure after an ultimate tournament. Happy feet equals a happy marriage.
• Always make time for at least one date night a week.
• Surprise each other!

> Hey Kris --
>
> How was the honeymoon?  Do you have some online photos
> somewhere?
>
> Here's the news on my end:
>
> - We finally bought a place in Los Altos:
> xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx
> Los Altos, CA 94022
>
> We're doing some kitchen renovations, so we won't move
> in for about 4-5 months, but tomorrow, I'm having our
> stuff taken out of storage, and dumped in our home
> temporarily.  Although we're still in a rental in
> Indian Creek, you'll have to come over to see the new
> place in Los Altos some time.
>
> - Big news -- we're expecting!  December 5 is the
> current due date.  We're very excited, and hoping that
> things go smoothly between now and then.
>
> Drop me a note when you get a chance and let me know
> how things are going on your end.
>
> Cheers,
> Bobby

Wow.

The second to last day Kris and I were in Scotland, we visited Stirling Castle. Magnificent!

One of the events of the day was two men dressed as medieval warriors: a foot soldier and an archer. The archer's name was Hugh. He was quite entertaining. More than just talking briefly about archery, he gave lots of history and entertaining sidenotes. Here are the ones Kris and I wrote down to remember.

• Pick a quarrel

  Crossbow archers would carry their arrows in a quarrel, which is a four-sided leather pouch that hung off their belt. As the archers headed off to the battlefield, they would pick up their allotment of arrows that were made by arrow makers. The allotment was in delivered in the quarrel, so archers would go off to "pick a quarrel."

• Longbow archer pay

  English longbow archers started training at age 5, and practiced pretty much every day. Good archers were able to keep three in the air. In particular, the timing was such that as one arrow was arriving at its target, another was in the air on its way, while a third was being cocked on the bow. Another quality of a good archer was the ability to watch the air for incoming, return arrows.

  Longbow archers were paid 2 pence a day vs the 1 pence a day regular foot soldiers were paid. The double pay was the source of considerable animosity between archers and foot soldiers, as archers typically stood back 400 yards or so from the hand-to-hand battle - considered a safe distance where one doesn't need to "risk his life" (at least, not as much).

  If an archer was captured in battle, often his pulling fingers were cut off. As most archers could find employment only as a soldier, many would return to the lines as a regular foot soldier. Regular foot soldiers would see the missing fingers and be socially hostile to the new soldier.

• Two finger salute

  As mentioned above in the previous section, longbow archers' fingers were cut off when the archers were captured in battle. They were then often released. Cutting off the pulling fingers was pretty close to a living death sentence.

  In some battles, when the enemy was defeated, the English longbowmen would hold up two fingers in an aggressive gesture (the two finger salute), so show the enemy they still hand their fingers (and would fight again another day).

• Kiss it goodbye

  When pulling back an arrow in the bow, with a bow of proper strength, the farthest back an archer should need to pull the arrow is back to the mouth. As the back of the arrow (the feathers) is next to the archer's mouth, where he could kiss it goodbye.

• Keep it under your hat

  Archers were paid by how efficient they were. One way to see how many arrows were shot, is to count the number of bowstrings that broke. If you broke a large number, obviously you shot a lot of arrows. Often, if an archer noticed the archer next to him had a large number of broken bowstrings, he might cut his bowstring, so that he also gets paid for the extra strings.

  To prevent fellow archers from seeing how many bowstrings an archer had (thus could use), an archer would hide extra strings under his hat, taking them out only when needed. So, each would "keep it under his hat."

• Cock up

  Typical arrows have three feathers. When they are cocked in the bow and released, one or more of the arrows will graze the bowstring if the arrow isn't aligned correctly. In order to help the archer (who is firing very rapidly and doesn't have much time to think) align the arrow correctly, one feather is different than the other two (say, black with two white ones). The colored arrow indicating direction is called the cock. The proper alignment is the cock feather pointing up, or "cock up".

Entertaining lessons. Thanks, Hugh!

Good interview with Jacob Neilsen, whose website http://www.useit.com/alertbox is a great resource for how to build good websites.

Nielsen's "Alertbox"
www.useit.com/alertbox

Adaptive Path's incisive essays on information design, architecture and usability
www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/index.php

Slashdot blurb:

CIO Insight's executive editor Brad Wieners interviews Web site design usability evangelist Jakob Nielsen about design mistakes like poor search, discusses organizational resistance and common barriers to doing usability reviews, concluding with Nielsen's Adobe PDF and pop-up pet peeves, common redesign errors and budget advice when it's time for a redesign, either for your Web site or company intranet. And just to make it more usable and readable (so you don't have to click through multiple pages), you can read the entire Jakob Nielsen interview on one printer-friendly page with fewer graphics and a bandwidth-saving document size for people using dial-up Internet connections.

Notes from this article, originally at http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article/0,1406,a=129234,00.asp

Pet Peeves in General

B2B Tips

I'm usually entertained by things like this. tickle.com has various free IQ tests and personality profiles. I took the IQ test (an entertaining 142), and the personality ink blot tests.

The results were entertaining.

Tickle's Original Inkblot Test

Your subconscious mind is driven most by Curiosity

This means you are full of questions about life, people, and the potential of your future. You spend more time than others envisioning the possibilities of your life — things that others are too afraid to consider.

Your curiosity burns with an almost physical need to know and do more. It's only through new experiences that you feel a greater understanding of yourself or the world — which ultimately is the greatest way for you to feel satisfied.

It is possible that the underlying reason for your drive towards curiosity is a deeply rooted fear of boredom. That means that you are probably more susceptible than others to feel like you're falling into a rut when life slows down into a comfortable routine.

You need to make sure you have stimulation in your life — that makes you feel like you're innovating or being exposed to the ideas and experiences that truly inspire you.

With such a strong orientation towards curiosity, you're also prone to a rebellious quality that shows up when you feel you are just going through the motions, and are unable to really influence the world around you. But interestingly enough, your drive towards novel experiences also indicates an openness others don't have, but wish they did.

Unconsciously, your curiosity presses you to learn more, experience more, and get the most out of life.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Curiosity, there is much more to who you are at your core.

Heh. Imagine. Me. Bored. Heh.